Building a (Second) Mandolin...

This project is a sequel to my first mandolin (if you haven’t read that project, it may be a good idea to do so before diving into this one.) Much like a movie sequel, I won’t need to use as much time on character development since you'll already be familiar with the main characters from the first installment. It also means I’ll likely be referring back to the original project often. Hopefully I’ll manage to avoid the classic pitfalls of movie sequels…

This mandolin was much faster to build. The experience and knowledge from building and designing the first iteration helped a great deal. I did the majority of the construction in about two weeks with around 40 hours of build time. It took another week and 20 hours to complete the mandolin after a two month hiatus. This compares well to the 80 hours to complete the entire first mandolin considering the new mandolin has added features. The 80 hours includes a great deal of head scratching time, although that’s how you make a project like this faster; by knowing what you’re going to do next.

Mandolin Plans

Here are the plans I used to build my mandolin: MandolinNo002.dxf. The plans are free to download and copy for reference or as a guide to build your own mandolin. If you don't have a CAD program, there are free CAD viewers available that will let you view and print the plans.

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